Serotonin and Aggression

OLIVIER, BEREND

Department of Psychopharmacology, Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Address for corrrespondence: Department of Psychopharmacology, Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 36, 3584CA Utrecht, the Netherlands. Voice: 31 30 2533529; fax: 31 30 253 7900. [email protected]

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1036: 382-392 (2004).

doi: 10.1196/annals.1330.022

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1036:p 382-392, 2004.

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in the modulation of aggression in animals and humans. A longstanding dogma that aggression and serotonergic activity are inversely related has to be abandoned in light of many new findings. Trait and state aggression are differentially regulated by the 5-HT system and different 5-HT receptors seem to be involved. Of the 14 different 5-HT receptors, the 5-HT_1B receptor, particularly the postsynaptically located 5-HT_1B heteroreceptor, plays a highly selective role in the modulation of offensive aggression. We are still far from understanding the complex role played by the serotonergic system in the modulation of a complex set of behaviors like aggression.